Lynch arrives first for a media push on SouthCoast

The South Boston Democrat has already had a New Bedford appearance at the Celtic Coffeehouse, won the support of former Mayor Rosemary Tierney and made the rounds to both The Standard-Times and WBSM.

Steve Lynch didn't waste much time getting himself to SouthCoast after he announced he's running for Senate.

Unlike Ed Markey, who almost two months after he announced has yet to find his way to a public appearance in New Bedford, Lynch's staff was blanketing the local media with contacts the very first week.

The South Boston Democrat has already had a New Bedford appearance at the Celtic Coffeehouse, won the support of former Mayor Rosemary Tierney and made the rounds to both The Standard-Times and WBSM.

Lynch has also already done an interview with The Boston Globe aimed at positioning himself as more moderate on abortion rights than his reputation; he did the same thing on gay rights with this newspaper.

Lynch is known as a conservative Democrat in the political universe, but he's already rebranding himself there, too.

"Calling me the most conservative member of the Mass. delegation is like calling me the slowest Kenyan in the Boston Marathon," he told me, in a line he's been using across the state for some time.

That's a far cry from the conservative Democrat image Lynch certainly cultivated early on, including when he ran to the right of an incumbent Southie state rep in 1994 and for Congress in 2001 against three more progressive Democrats.

It's true, Mr. Lynch is far from a knee-jerk conservative — in fact, more than anything, he comes across as a guy who thinks for himself. His Southie background, and its emphasis on family and clan, has served him well in that he's not genuflecting to the "conventional wisdom" of either the liberal or conservative establishments.

In person, the 57-year-old is not a fire-breathing extremist. He's authentic and smart, and someone who very definitely is well-acquainted with the issues and who thinks them through for himself.

Though he voted against Obamacare, Lynch notes that he voted in favor of the House health-care reform act and credibly points out that that bill would have been more likely to force insurance companies to reduce costs.

It's an example of Lynch's willingness to follow his own North Star, regardless of what party leaders want. It's also, of course, an example of the fact that he could not be counted on by Democrats on a party-line vote. He too easily dismisses the argument that Obamacare represented the only chance for national health care in a generation.

While talking to Mr. Lynch, I started off by asking him about the aspect of his character that most impresses me: The guy donated 60 percent of his liver to his brother-in-law. That's not the sort of largesse all of us would be able to step up to.

Lynch, however, didn't swing for the fences with the softball question. He acknowledged the gift wasn't easy but talked about the good husband his brother-in-law had been and the good life he's led since the donation.

Lynch is definitely not without some worrisome blemishes.

He was the pro-bono lawyer for racist teenagers who were harassing an Hispanic dating a white woman. And he aligned himself with a homophobic South Boston group that kept gays out of the St. Patrick's Day parade. He had a problem paying his taxes for awhile.

But Lynch has demonstrated an ability to grow. In recent years, he's received favorable reviews from some civil rights and gay rights groups.

Perhaps more important than anything for SouthCoast, Steve Lynch knew enough about local politics to get himself to this neighborhood quickly. And when he arrived, the former iron worker and union leader was well acquainted with the issues facing us on fisheries, commuter rail and a stagnating blue-collar economy.

Lynch grew up in a housing project and Ed Markey is the son of a milkman so despite Lynch's claim to be the blue-collar candidate in the race, the truth is that both Democrats come from humble roots.

But there's something about Steve Lynch that is well grounded in his roots. This is a guy who's not going to forget where he came from, or who's been his friend.

Jack Spillane is the executive news editor of The Standard-Times and southcoasttoday.com. He can be reached at 5080979-4472 or jspillane@s-t.com.

Editor's Note (Feb. 26, 2013): The Markey campaign says it did hold a New Bedford event at the Celtic Cafe on Feb. 3. The Standard-Times has no record of being informed of a time and place for the event and the campaign acknowledged it has had difficulty with delivery of some emails.

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